How To Open A
Coconut

2
Easy Steps: How to open a coconut?

Fresh coconut meat makes a delicious and satisfying snack which is at
the same time healthful. I think that one of the main reasons more
people don't buy fresh coconuts at the market is that the task of
opening a coconut may seem a little daunting. In fact, many of the
suggestions which I have seen are so much trouble and make such a mess
that it hardly seems worth the effort.

Using a very simple method you
can open a fresh coconut with very little effort. I should qualify the
word "fresh" when describing coconuts since you may have the same
experience which I have had and find that the coconut which you open
is fresh only in the sense that it has not been processed and not
necessarily that it is fit to eat. Often the coconuts from the market are rancid when I open them.

You can be assured that the coconuts
shipped at Coconut
are always fresh.

Step 1. How to Drain the coconut water from the coconut.

In order to drain the liquid from the coconut (coconut water) you
obviously need to make a hole in the nut. The easiest way that I have
found to do this is with a pair of scissors. Using one blade of the
scissors (see the photo below) probe the three "eyes" on the end of
the coconut until you locate the soft one. Then use the scissor blade
to ream a hole in this eye. You should easily be able to make a large
enough hole to drain the coconut. Drain the coconut water into a
glass. If it has a sweet coconut smell, take a sip of it to check the
taste. If it has a sweet fresh coconut taste, proceed to Step 2.
(Drink the coconut water or refrigerate it for later use.) If it
smells or tastes sour or moldy, there is no point in proceeding;
return it to the market for another nut or a refund.

Step 2. How to Break open the coconut.

After draining the coconut put it inside one of the plastic bags which
are now used by practically all supermarkets. Then wrap this bag
around the nut. Place the wrapped nut inside another plastic grocery
bag (I normally double bag the nut for added strength.) Holding the
handles, swing the bag down onto a concrete step, sidewalk, garage
floor, etc. You can also throw the bag down which gives you a little
more control over the impact. The impact will open the coconut
shell into several pieces.

Throw the nut down several times until the
nut is broken into pieces of manageable size. The impact will not only
break the shell but will cause much of the coconut meat to separate
from it. Open the bag and remove the coconut pieces.

Coconut meat
which is still attached to the shell can be separated by inserting the
blade of a sturdy knife between the meat and the shell and then giving
it a twist. The meat will normally pop away from the shell. Rinse the
coconut meat to wash off any bits of shell and store in the
refrigerator. Some people peel off the thin brown layer but I normally
eat that along with the meat. If you are going to grate the coconut
for use in a recipe I would suggest peeling off the brown so that the
coconut is snow white.

VIDEO: "How To Open A Coconut"

How To Open A Coconut

How To
Drain The Coconut Water

How To
Peel The Coconut Meat From The Sell

Step by Step In Structions On How To Crack Open A Coconut

Step 1: Use a sharp object like a ice pick or phillips screwdriver and pierce the soft eye of a coconut. Push right into the coconut seed.

Step 2: Drain the coconut water into a glass. Use fine strainer if there is any coconut bits in the water.

Step 3: Split coconut in two with the backside of a cleaver. You need to hammer quite hard over and over while you are rotating the coconut. After about 12 strong hits, the coconut will start to crack. At this point you can start to pry the coconut shell into two separate pieces.

Step 4: Next you will have two halves of coconut - Grab one half of the coconut in the palm of your hand and use a spoon to carve out the fresh juicy coconut meat.